The alkaloids obtained from the capsules of five different collections of wild P. orientale and sixteen different collections of wild P. pseudo-orientale have been investigated and the chromosome numbers of some of the samples determined. Oripavine was the major alkaloid obtained from four of the P. orientale collections, two of which had a diploid chromosome number of 28. These four samples contained isothebaine and alpinigenine as minor alkaloids whereas two contained mecambridine and orientalidine and the other two contained thebaine and salutaridine. The remaining sample of P. orientale contained mecambridine as the major alkaloid and also some orientalidine. Thirteen of the sixteen samples of P. pseudo-orientale contained isothebaine, mecambridine and orientalidine as their major alkaloids with thebaine and salutaridine as minor alkaloids. Alpinigenine was detected in three samples. The diploid chromosome number of four of the thirteen samples was determined as 42. Two samples of P. pseudo-orientale contained salutaridine and thebaine as major alkaloids and had a diploid chromosome number of 14 whereas the remaining sample yielded salutaridine as the major alkaloid with isothebaine, mecambridine and orientalidine as minor alkaloids and a diploid chromosome number of 28.